I will react to your idea of not all in Mumbai getting involved in day one. Recently in an email discussion about the way forward after the Hansel try at the just concluded elections, I was of the opinion that we need to do introspection and decide on a paradigm shift in our engagement with politics. One of my ideas was that if even 100 citizens got together in each councilor ward and acted as a support group to the local elected representatives instead of the whole mass only complaining and doing nothing then maybe a lot of change would come about. We have to realise that politicians also need support ultimately – you just cant be critical all the time. And yes politics needs to evolve considerably from its current form!

What you mention about the neighbourhood involvement model was quite successfully tried in the late 90’s and early 00’s through the Advanced Locality Management (ALM) Scheme (it was also successfully tried as the Bhagidari scheme in Delhi). In Mumbai we reached around 700 such such ALMs before the scheme suffered on many accounts, one of them being a power struggle which saw local councillors feeling challenged by the rise in power of some of the citizens who were able to leverage the mechanism well and were growing popular. Also petty ego clashes!

The Mohalla Committes are a similar mechanism for a similar purpose.

I wonder about your point ” outside the metros – communities are better defined…” I am really not sure. But maybe you are right.

The idea about working with solar in your maids colony is a great idea…give me the details and something can be done..how much is her bill? Is she in G+7 or just ground?

Let me knw about the next term…sure it will be interesting to work with your students

i enjoy a civil and involved exchange of ideas. if we both said the same thing – the exchange would be boring na ?

i think that cities are ripe for change. communities need to be rebuilt – not in a religious or an ethnic sense, but in a neighborhood sense . It has already begun. I was telling someone, little things that you see in the west like a raffle for the local police charity or for the local hospital – doesn’t exist. we need to start getting people to participate in their own neighborhood first. it could be cluster of buildings a small gulley or something like that. nothing huge. start small and build.

at a slum level – maybe a collection of people from around there who help people with school admissions, hospitals etal — those are things that the political system does. that is what needs to be replicated. the reason why its all out of control is because there is no alternative mechanism. maybe that would be something that would be worth working on ! if we reduce people’s dependence on the political machinery and got civil society to step in and do its work – then maybe people can look at larger issues. today, unfortunately, we can only look at survival issues. politics has to move beyond that !

outside the metros – communities are better defined, as are neighborhoods as are problem ares – therefore, solutions are easier.

16 million people of Mumbai don’t need to get involved on day one of change – if 16, or 160 or 1600 or 16000 do in various clusters – maybe things will change. but we have to break the barriers in our head – we can’t look at the city as us and them –

something very easy to start with – and maybe close to your heart – there are a number of low income MAHDA’s – my maid got moved from her slum to one of them. she is cribbing about electricity bills. would be interesting to see what would be the impact of solar panels

Come to Sophia’s next term – address my students. maybe we can get a volunteer movement started

I guess it finally boils down to a specific perspective of a nihilism.

If nothing matters, and we’re powerless in the larger picture, I guess we select our individual follies to pursue.

The building in question has now been pulled down and a new building will come up in its place. After the roots have taken such a strong grip as in the case of the building shown it is very difficult to get it out. Its not impossible I am sure but still there would be difficulty in removing the dead roots even if you pour herbicide on the tree. Which of course no Hindu would do!? When the tree is young, yes it is certainly possible to remove the tree, which is when action should be taken. It takes the tree months to become even 2 feet tall within which time it is visible to Gods and mortals alike.

In the old areas of the city watching numerous such peepal trees is a frequent observation of mine. I see the trees and the damage it is causing to the building and rue the neglect and indifference of the residents. I dont think it is religious sentiment also. People just give a damn. Which is what I have captured in another entry of mine – http://rishiaggarwaal.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/hindus-and-hinduism-in-a-hindu-heartland/

Cheers,

Rishi

Thanks for your interest and comments! I have wanted to believe in the human intellect for more than two decades now starting as a ten year old in mid 80’s when I saw Living Planet and heard David Atenborrough and watched so many more documentaries on the then wonderful State television. I have over the years only been disappointed with the human intellect in matters of the commons. We are excellent within our microcosm.

In response to your query my answer is that we all have been trying to engage our fellow species members in appreciating the fact that we are a part of th strand for far too long and we can see the results in front of ourselves. Maybe it is time to let go on some issues? Maybe as a trial?

There is a drastic need to revisit our strategies and do an analysis of what we do and what we do. Look at the stupid way in which we still carry out our climate change negotiations? Everybody just holds on to their positions and keeps reading their wish list. No body even listens to the other person I think.

Whatever stage of evolution we are in, a large majority of those who are well fed and well educated and with more opportunities in life, and consequently those who are calling the shots and taking the decisions are still convinced that we are not a part of the fabric. And you cannot spell out the consequences to those who are firm in this belief of theirs. Its like selling refrigerators to Eskimos.

And unless you cant change the underlying value structure whatever we all do – Greenpeace and others – is just delaying the inevitable. We keep getting on and off the merry ground of the desire to make a change depending upon our enthusiasm and burn out levels

Interacting with the system is more a function of each individuals value structure and fascination with ‘the system’. There are blue collared worker who give a damn about the system and there are well off middle class who just cant seem to think of anything else. But the vast majority even out of their lack of a value structure and appreciation for the system manage to have the better influence on it! That is the paradoxical reality. So you fret and frown and also sweat a bit and nothing changes and you remain indifferent and respond to rhetoric and manage to keep the system the way it is.

The current class of politicians are firmly in touch with the essential makeup of the vast millions. An incredible ability to be intimidated with violence, an inability to not stand alone for what you believe in and a complete refusal to upgrade your knowledge base continuously – in fact a denial of any knowledge outside one which will get ou a good job are very essential characteristics of Indians today. And it is on this rotting bread that the mold of our existing politicians grow, no mold without bad bread.

I unfortunately do not keep much track with what happens in rural areas but my reading is that those places are far worse of because the element of lawlessness and the vicious grasp of traditional thought patterns which comes in small non-cosmopolitan towns and communes makes for a far worse cocktail. Bombay in fact makes for such a wonderful laboratory for good governance but is also a phenomenal wasted opportunity. And I could add 10,000 word note here on the complete ineptness and enormous contribution of the few active civil society constituents in the situation.

How you frame your arguments, how well you are able to understand that a significant chunk of the constituents are non-english speaking, how you able to even better understand the complex diversity of the constituent base is something which makes all the difference and this is something which the existing civil society is hopeless out of touch with. And so importantly how you are able to manage your ego – of which the Bhagavat Geeta propounding types suffer the most from – is absent.

Maybe I am wrong and even if right maybe there is change coming about which I am not seeing. Its great you have been interacting with Navdanya and I am possibly out of touch with the changing reality. Maybe I need to be farming for some while and be away from the city!

As regards Mumbai’s participation if people are able to engage themselves on what I see as purely selfish issues – the conditions at the railways stations (for which I ran what must be Mumbai’s first coordinated Clean Railway Stations Campaign in 2007 [some pics in my facebook acnt] ), the state of the cooperative housing societies (a large majority of which are anything but cooperative), an interest in land use and transport which ultimately has a massive impact on your quality of life whether bottom of the rung or right on top, look into an every rupee account of the BMC budget spend, then I think a lot will be achieved. And need I say that to me each and every issue is a selfish issue, I am concerned about the air quality, and the sewage that is poured in the sea and how it enters the food chain, and the trees which give shade and the municipal hospitals and the public urinals and the…..its like I said, does your value system make these things as fascinating as watching Big Boss?? If not, don’t blame the politicos!

The BMC is my first governance love! So all game for any plans to take charge there. Yes lets meet soon…maybe others who I sent the message and some how may be following this discussion can also come in. Lets grow the numbers.

Thanks again and Happy Diwali!

d) i have been interacting with Navdanya on organic bodies and a couple of other bodies on microfiannce and rural dev. It is incredible how Bharat responds to the environmental agenda – and refreshing organic is growing, Rishi. The groundswell against pollution, GM and BT is growing. The sad part is that it is not reported. Again, one of the things one has come to realize, is how little Mumbai participates it needs to change – but this has to be on real issues, not macro level stuff. Not stuff that makes people feel guilty about their lifestyle choices (that can come later) but stuff that they can actually do that is ‘easy’ to accomplish !

Let’s meet and jam – there is a lot that can happen. This country and its’ people are worth believing in

happy diwali and here is hoping for good governance